Not like on TV
by PadawannaB
Summary: While Jack was gone, there was bound to be times of despair. This is one of them. Takes place between S1 and S2.


**OK, this is pure angst. I didn't actually mean it to be this angsty and sad, but it just kinda happened. I'm not entirely happy with this, either, I find the team to be a bit too much OOC. But anyways, hope you enjoy, and please, do let me know what you think!**

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><p>Not like on TV<p>

It's sometimes too easy to make the mistake of thinking it would be like on TV.

You see, in TV, when someone gets shot, there's some grunting, wincing and dramatically whispered words, usually along the lines of 'I'll be fine' or 'You should leave me behind'. Otherwise, it's quiet. No sound. Unless that someone has a girlfriend who's main function is to scream and cry her eyes out while he lies there grunting, wincing and whispering dramatically. In real life, its nothing like that at all. In real life, it's a lot more messy, and there's much, much more noise. And now that her hands are pressing down on Ianto's stomach, trying to keep the blood in for there is already far too much of it on the cheap-looking zebra patterned carpet -_far, far too much_- Gwen reminds herself not to watch action movies for a while: she gets enough of that stuff at work anyway, and besides, she should never make that mistake, of forgetting what this is really like. She can't afford to be so pleasantly and blissfully ignorant of the reality that is Torchwood.

Another easy mistake to make is to forget that normal life still exists. She should know, that's one of the things she does in Torchwood: she reminds them of the normal stuff, of boyfriends and dentist appointments and too big dining room tables that didn't fit through the door after all. But even she had forgot this sort of normalcy. When she had been a copper, on the beat, guarding the streets of Cardiff from pub fighters, pickpockets and alike, armed robberies were the stuff of stories to her. A reality, yes, but never a thing she go to witness. Fuck, she had never even as much as loaded a gun before she joined Torchwood. And now that she was a part of the aforementioned institute, guarding the streets of Cardiff, and, quite frankly, the world from Weevils, Hoixes and space junk, armed robberies were part of the normal life. Nothing to do with Torchwood.

Until now, that is. When Rift activity and Tosh's tracking device had led them to Partridge Street, the one thing they had not, despite all their experience in weird stuff, been prepared to meet, was three men emptying the living room of the house the alien had decided to hide in. Chaos ensued, as the men were quite frightened, the alien quite agitated and the family had decided to wake up to the noises and were now producing some more noise themselves. It had not been pretty. And the screams and the sounds, they seemed to never end, the terrified wailing of a child, the gunshots echoing in the small space, the yell when Ianto hit the floor, the scream of the dying alien. And even now, when Gwen was kneeling in the pool of blood, it was still deafening. Owen yelled for Tosh to get a move on and Retcon the family, while he was trying to patch up his own bleeding leg and slowly crawl towards Gwen and Ianto. Tosh was yelling to the phone, just trying to be heard, calling an ambulance -_'hurry up', Gwen thought: far, far, far too much blood on the cheap carpet. _The family was yelling for help, just for someone to help, and so were the three burglars. _Just who exactly did they think was going to come and help?_ _Mum, God, Father Christmas? The fucking Doctor?_

And Ianto was screaming for Jack, screaming so that his voice cracked and he sounded more like an old recording, and still he screamed, repeating Jack's name, like a scared child, like the child he really was with all his 24 years of life. He didn't say anything else, yell for anyone else. Just Jack, a desperate cry, again and again. And it broke Gwen's heart, for Jack was the only thing she could not give him. Jack wasn't there. Jack had left. Jack _fucking_ Harkness had left them, ran off, escaped somewhere, and now they were all screaming like animals, chaotic animals, and there was too much Ianto's blood on the cheap-looking zebra patterned carpet, and he was screaming for Jack and it was all far too much for her to handle.

At this point, on TV, the hero would appear out of nowhere. Save the day.

One desperate look around, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Just another easy mistake to make.

~Fin~

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><p><strong>That was that, folks! Please review, it's been a while since I've written anything so this is me trying to get back on track and I really would like to now what you think!<strong>


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